It is a known fact that aircraft require materials and structures which have to be lightweight and strong at the same time.
For the manufacturing of such structures, the use of composite materials with a thermosetting matrix has become widely popular.
In particular, integral composite structures have proved to be very efficient.
The manufacturing of this type of structure required equipment and procedures with such drawbacks as to lead me to search for and then find a solution which is original in terms of equipment and process.
In recent years, a technique for the manufacturing of thermosetting composite structural parts has been commonly adopted. This manufacturing method consists in forming layers of carbon fibers, glass fibers, etc., pre-impregnated with thermosetting resins, using a forming or shaping tool.
To tighten the layers and to confer the required shape, the layers were enclosed between the surface of the shaping tool and an external flexible container, known as a vacuum bag.
The adoption of composite structural parts for aeronautical and other applications gives rise to major benefits in terms of manufacturing cost savings and quality improvements, due to the possibility to manufacture integral box structures, in one shot, even with strengthening elements, spars, or the like which join the two surfaces of the structure. This manufacturing process was, until now performed with complex layer-forming equipment, which was often expensive to manufacture and required long heating times for polymerization, while not ensuring a uniform distribution of pressure over the entire surface during the polymerization process.
Uniform application of pressure is therefore the most significant problem with earlier techniques.